Interactive demonstration · illustrative data

How we find and fix salary compaction

Exhibit A calls for a comprehensive review of internal salary relationships and compaction within and across job families (§3.8.3.3). This module demonstrates the analysis on an illustrative operator-series ladder. Adjust the sliders and watch differentials, overlap, and the recommendation logic respond.

Illustrative career ladder: Operator series

Synthetic ranges loosely shaped like a public-agency operator progression. No OC San salary data appears anywhere on this page; the real analysis runs on validated payroll and range data provided at project initiation.

The tests we run on every ladder

  • Promotional differential: is the range-max step between each level at or above the agency's policy threshold (commonly 5 to 10 percent)?
  • Supervisor-subordinate compression: can a supervisor's range max fall below a led classification's max plus longevity and special pays?
  • Range overlap: what share of each range is overlapped by the level below, and is overlap consistent within the family?
  • Cross-family equity: do same-level classes in related families (for example Electrical vs Instrumentation Technician II) hold consistent relationships?
  • Total-comp distortion: do shift, standby, licensure, or lead pays invert take-home ordering even where base ranges look clean?

Why this matters at OC San specifically

The Exhibit A list is dense with exactly the structures where compaction lives: Operator in Training through Chief Plant Operator, Mechanic through Maintenance Superintendent, Technician I/II with Lead layers in both Electrical and Instrumentation, and analyst series with Senior and Principal steps. Six bargaining units mean differentials also carry MOU history, so every recommendation we make ships with the fiscal cost and the negotiation-context rationale §3.3.3 requires.

In a representative environment, a compaction fix is a bargaining proposal. We write them so they can be tabled as-is.